Steve Higgins takes Jamaican folk culture to Japan

Fresh from his recent performance at the Davie Jazz Festival in Florida, Jamaican tenor and cultural ambassador Steve Higgins will spread his wings to Asia, touching down in Tokyo, Japan, this month.

While in Japan, Higgins will be showcasing Jamaican folk songs, singing at concert halls in Tokyo and Tottori, as well as other selected venues. He will share some of Jamaica’s rhythmic, pulsating folk music in a full 75-minute concert mode, with an audience that already has a long-standing admiration for Jamaica’s culture.

The music tour is a joint collaboration of the Embassy of Jamaica in Tokyo and Japan’s Min-On Concert Association, with the support of the Japan Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Tottori prefectural government. The concerts will be in commemoration of this year’s 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Jamaica.

Yukari Kiyono, a celebrated Japanese operatic soprano, and Mitsuru Hirose, distinguished pianist, will join Higgins in performance. Response in the Japanese community to this upcoming series has been very spirited.

Higgins will also be singing at the Iwami High School in Tottori, where he will engage students, and will be treated to renditions of Jamaican music performed by the school’s Blue Martin Jazz Orchestra. The exchange will culminate in a joint performance of songs to include Bob Marley’s One Love. The participation of students complements Higgins’ annual workshop series on Jamaican folk music in universities, museums, and schools across the Jamaican diaspora.

“We are excited to welcome Mr Higgins to Japan for this Jamaican cultural showcase as we introduce Japan to another genre of Jamaica’s music. I look forward to the nostalgia that he will bring through his spirited performance of Jamaica’s folk music,” said Shorna-Kay Richards, Jamaican ambassador to Japan.

Min-On’s Director of International Relations, Toshiaki Matsuo, shared: “We all love Jamaica and its vibrant music and culture. In the past, we have had excellent collaboration with Jamaica’s talented musicians. This time will be no different as Higgins shares folk music from Jamaica with our members and other guests.”

Higgins said he was “honoured to have received this invitation to Japan and look forward to delivering exhilarating performances, including a tribute to the incomparable Harry Belafonte”.

Over the years, Steve Higgins Productions has presented Jamaican folk music all over Europe, North America, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom. In addition to folk songs, Higgins sings jazz, ballads, sacred music, Italian arias, and of course, most Jamaican popular genres. His concerts attract diverse audiences as he continues to work with embassies, high commissions and consulates in promoting Jamaica’s culture in the global community.

entertainment@gleanerjm.com